Amphibians of Agumbe, India

Rhacophorus malabaricus: PC Yatin Kalki

Date:
May 27th to June 22nd 2015

Species Found:

1. Malabar Gliding Frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus)
2. Western Tree Frog (Polypedates occidentalis)
3. Amboli Bush Frog (Pseudophilautus amboli)
4. Yellow Bush Frog (Raorchestes luteolus)
5. Ponmudi Bush Frog (Raorchestes ponmudi)
6. Beddome's Leaping Frog (Indirana beddomii)
7. Small Handed Leaping Frog (Indirana semipalmata)
8. Golden Frog (Hylarna aurantiaca)
9. Bronze Frog (Hylarna temporalis)
10. Bicolored Frog (Clinotarsus curtipes)
11. Indian Bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus)
12. Common Skittering Frog (Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis)
13. Wrinkled Cricket Frog (Fejervarya caperata)
14. Kudremukh Cricket Frog (Fejervarya kudremukhensis)
15. Reddish Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya rufescens)
16. Kempholay Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus kempholayensis)
17. Karnataka Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus karnatakaensis)
18. Niluvasi Dancing Frog (Micrixalus niluvasi)
19. Kottigehara Dancing Frog (Micrixalus kottigeharensis)
20. Marbled Ramanella (Ramanella mormorata)
21. Asian Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)
22. Yellow Striped Caecilian (Ichthyophis beddomei)

Background:

I am doing a 3 month long research project in the tropical rainforests of the Western Ghats near Agumbe, Karnataka. I am working with herpetologist, Gowri Shankar, at his research base at the Kalinga Center for Raiforest Ecology. My project is titled 'Use of Artificial Cover by Reptiles and Amphibians'. I have number of sites where I have layed out tin sheets, wooden boards and roof tiles. Everyday I check under them to see if any animals are using them. I see some animals under my cover objects but most are encountered while I'm walking between sites. These are some of the amphibians that I encounter during the course of my fieldwork. [I am writing this post during a week long break. My research project ends only in August]

Malabar Gliding Frog

Rhacophorus malabaricus: PC Yatin Kalki

Almost every night I encouter Malabar Gliding frogs calling from their perches in the trees. They are called Gliding Frogs because they use the webbing between their toes as paracutes and glide down from high branches. Once, our base manager, Prashant brought a bag of spinach from the village. Out of the bag jumped a male Gliding Frog. How he got there is anybody's guess, but it was a comical episode.

Rhacophorus malabaricus: PC Yatin Kalki

Western Tree Frog

Polypedates occidentalis: PC Yatin Kalki

Western Tree Frogs are identified by the hour-glass shape on their backs (not shown in photo). I see these frogs from time to time but they are usually found high in the canopy.

Amboli Bush Frog

Pseudophilautus amboli: PC Yatin Kalki

This is the most common Bush Frog I see. As soon as it gets dark, their calls fill the forest. With a little patience, you can locate the frogs by listening to their calls. They usually inhabit bushes between 2 and 6 foot high. During the day they rest under leaves or on the ground under cover. One individual was found under one of my roof tiles at around 1230 pm.

Pseudophilautus amboli: PC Yatin Kalki

Yellow Bush Frog

Raorchestes luteolus: PC Yatin Kalki

The Yellow Bush Frog, also called the Blue Eyed Bush Frog is another endemic species that I see quite frequently at night. It is named for its color and the blue ring around its iris. It's call is metallic and sounds like a bell ringing.

Ponmudi Bush Frog

Raorchestes ponmudi: PC Yatin Kalki

This is another bush frog with a very distinctive call. I always knew that these frogs were around but I never saw one until a guy named Abhishek decided to visit. He was really good with frogs and their calls so he tracked down a Ponmudi by its calls and showed it to all of us. It was inside a dead leaf, impossible to spot unless you knew exactly what you were looking for.

Beddome's Leaping Frog

Indirana beddomii: PC Yatin Kalki

This frog is named for its ability to leap large distances. I found this individual in the bathroom behind a vase, but they usually live on the forest floor, where they blend in with the leaf litter.

Small Handed Leaping Frog

Indirana semipalmata: PC Yatin Kalki

This species is similar to the Beddome's Leaping Frog but it has smaller hands, as its name suggests. I found one of these under a piece of wood that I had placed in the grassland. It's coloration and wrinkled skin help it blend in with the small rocks found in the drier areas.

Golden Frog

Hylarana aurantiaca: PC Yatin Kalki

These frogs are named for their golden color. For a long time I thought that all the noise coming from the ponds at night was because of the Skittering Frogs in the water, but one day I found a Golden Frog sitting on a plant at the edge of the pond and I observed that it's call was the same sound I was hearing every night. I started looking in the vegetation surrounding the pond and found a few dozen more Golden Frogs hidden between the tall leaves.

Bronze Frog

Hylarana temporalis: PC Yatin Kalki

This species is similar to the Golden Frog but it is usually found in the leaf litter around streams. Finding large females of this species at night is easy if you have bright torch. Like all frogs, their large eyes shine and can be seen from far away.

Bicolored Frog

Male Clinotarsus curtipes: PC Yatin Kalki

This is one of the most common species of frog found in the Agumbe rainforest, but it is endemic. You can see them at any time. In ponds around our base, there are large Bicolored Frog tadpoles that have been there for multiple years. Unlike most other frogs, these tadpoles can choose when to metamorphosize. They also like to form clusters for some reason.

Clinotarsus curtipes Tadpoles: PC Yatin Kalki

I have found Bicolored Frogs in various stages of metamorphosis. There was one individual which still had a tail and the colors were just starting to develop.

Clinotarsus curtipes Metamorph: PC Yatin Kalki

Males have a black coloration along their sides while females do not. Females are also much larger than males.

Female Clinotarsus curtipes: PC Yatin Kalki

At this point I have probably seen a few hundred male Bicolored Frogs, but only 2 females.

Indian Bullfrog

Hoplobatrachus tigerinus: PC Yatin Kalki

This is a common frog found throughout India. In many places it is hunted and eaten so numbers are declining. They are commonly found around the ponds near our base. Many times they hop right underfoot while you are walking. Twice, I have accidentally stepped on a Bullfrog and both times the frog hopped away as if nothing had happened. These frogs are tough if nothing else.

Common Skittering Frog

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis: PC Yatin Kalki

This is another very common frog usually found in water, but sometimes they come onto land when it rains. When disturbed, they skitter across the water's surface, much like a flat stone skipping.

Wrinkled Cricket Frog

Fejervarya caperata: PC Yatin Kalki

These frogs are quite common but it is hard to tell different Cricket Frog species apart. One way to tell is by looking at the shape and number of the wrinkles on the back. This species has straight and continuous wrinkles.

Kudremukh Cricket Frog

Fejervarya kudremukhensis: PC Yatin Kalki

This species has a V-shaped wrinkle pattern on the back and usually has a line running down the back. I frequently find these frogs under tiles in various habitat types.

Reddish Burrowing Frog

Fejervarya rufescens: PC Yatin Kalki

The Reddish Burrowing Frog is a species more closely related to the Cricket Frogs than other burrowing frogs. Though its color may not always be reddish, it is identified by its wrinkled back and small white line between the eyes. I find large numbers of these frogs in the drier and rockier areas.

Kempholay Night Frog

Nyctibatrachus kempholayensis: PC Yatin Kalki

This species is found in streams and ditches. They are nocturnal frogs with diamond shaped pupils. During the day they are usually found under rocks in streams.

Karnataka Night Frog

Nyctibatrachus karnatakaensis: PC Yatin Kalki

Another Night Frog species. I identify them by their red legs. [not shown in photo]

Niluvasi Dancing Frog

Micrixalus niluvasi: PC Yatin Kalki

This is a fairly small sized frog. It is identified by the reddish back and the black sides. Dancing frogs will sometimes display to each other by 'foot flagging'. They raise their front or back feet and wave them to establish dominance or to attract mates.

Kottigehara Dancing Frog

Micrixalus kottigeharensis: PC Yatin Kalki

This species also exhibits foot flagging behavior. The coloration is different from the Niluvasi's.

Marbled Ramanella

Ramanella mormorata: PC Yatin Kalki

The Marbled Ramanella is a narrow-mouthed frog endemic certain areas in the Western Ghats. In the time I have spent in Agumbe so far, I have only seen 2 individuals.

Asian Toad

Duttaphrynus melanostictus: PC Yatin Kalki

These are probably the most common amphibians in India. I find them in all the habitat types found in the study area around the base. These are the most common visitors to my cover objects and I usually find them under all the cover types. The beginning of the monsoon is the breeding time for Asian Toads so they are heard calling at night and even during the day. The males become bright yellow at this time.

Male Breeding Colors of Duttaphrynus melanostictus: PC Yatin Kalki

Yellow Striped Caecilian

Ichthyophis beddomei: PC Yatin Kalki

These are legless amphibians that burrow in moist soil. The yellow stripe running down their side gives them their name. I mostly find them under rocks and logs near streams but they come out in the open when it rains.

Herping in Bangalore, India

Indian Wolf Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Date:
May 24th and 25th 2015

Species Found:

1. Spotted Leaf Toed Gecko (Hemidactylus maculatus)
2. Indian Wolf Snake (Lycodon aulicus)
3. Indian Rat Snake (Ptyas mucosa)
4. Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja)
5. Checkered Keelback Water Snake (Xenochropis piscator)
6. Asian Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)

The Trip:

I looked for reptiles and amphibians in the areas surrounding my house and found all the species I had found before, in addition to the 6 species listed above.

Less than a kilometer away from my house, there is a large tract of land that is used to house and raise cows, locally called a goshala. The cows live on a small portion of the land while a large area is used to grow hay, and an even larger area is left untouched from where wild grasses are harvested periodically. All of these areas provide great habitat for herpetofauna, especially snakes. Previously, I had visited the cow sheds and the hay fields but the "wild" area was new to me, so I had no idea what to expect.

One morning I was looking around under rocks and in hay piles near the hay fields in the goshala, finding my usual assortment of the lizards, frogs and toads. Soon, 2 locals noticed me and walked over. They asked if I was looking for snakes and I said yes. They said that they knew where to find snakes and asked me to follow them. We walked on a narrow trail and the hay fields gave way to wild, native grass and scrub vegetation. I felt that it would be impossible to find snakes in such dense undergrowth but they seemed to know what they were doing so I followed. While we were walking I learned that these guys liked to see snakes but were afraidd to get too close. We agreed that they would find the snakes and I would catch them. Soon, we came across a shallow but expansive pool of water on our left at the end of a 15 foot slope. The slope was dense with thorny Acacia trees whose branches hung above the water. One of the locals pointed at a tree branch and said "snake". I saw a 6 foot Rat Snake sprawled across the thorny branches above the water. We moved a little closer and the snake started to move down from the tree. I knew that if I wanted to catch this snake I would have to act fast, so I slid down the slope toward the water while the snake reached the gound. Unforunately, my shirt and the skin on my arm got caught in the thorns of an Acacia branch and I was stuck. Meanwhile, the snake slithered into a burrow by the roots of a tree, never to be seen again. I took out my knife and cut the thorns away from me and made my way back up to the trail. I was disappointed that the snake had got away but I knew I would find more. The locals told me that they had to leave but that I should keep looking in the same area as they had seen a variety of snakes there. I too decided to try again another time.

The next day, I came back and started to walk on the same trail. Soon I noticed a snake resting on the trail about 10 meters ahead. I slowly crept forward to get a better look at the snake. There was dense knee-high grass on either side of the trail so I knew that catching this snake would be impossible. I got close enough to see that it was a Spectacled Cobra, basking in the sun, just minding its own business. Its hood was obviously closed but I could tell the species by the coloration and shape of the head. I tried to pull out my phone to take a photo of the snake but the movement of my hand alerted the snake and it quickly disappeared into the grass. I walked on and checked for Rat Snakes in the trees above the water but there were none. I kept walking until I found some rock piles, an awesome place to find reptiles. I started moving some rocks around when I saw a large brown gecko dart into a crevice. I had never seen this species of gecko around here before so I started moving the rocks around where it had gone in. on the underside of one of the rocks that I lifted, I found a small, brightly colored gecko, probably a juvenile of the same species. I quickly caught the gecko and put it in a box so I could photograph it later. I kept on probing for the adult, when I suddenly saw the smooth scales of a snake. I knew that it could either be a harmless Wolf Snake or a deadly Krait so I used a stick to move the rocks that were above it. When I saw the brown body with single white bands I knew it was a Wolf Snake. I used my hands to pick it up and it promptly bit me twice, but I wasn't worried. I put it in a bag to photograph. I kept looking for the adult gecko but it was gone. I found out later that the gecko was a Hemidactylus maculatus, a species usually found at the foothills of the Western Ghats. I took photos of both reptiles and released them where I found them.

Juvenile Spotted Leaf Toed Gecko: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Spotted Leaf Toed Gecko: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Spotted Leaf Toed Gecko: PC Yatin Kalki

Juvenile Spotted Leaf Toed Gecko: PC Yatin Kalki

Indian Wolf Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Indian Wolf Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Indian Wolf Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Later that day, a friend told me that there was a Checkered Keelback Water Snake in a pond in his backyard, so I went over to take a look. Checkered Keelbacks are non-venomous but aggressive snakes. I knew I was going to get bitten more than once. The snake was in the water but I could see its body coiled around some lotus leaves. I quickly reached in and grabbed the snake. The moment it's head came out of the water, it promptly bit my wrist and held on. I wasn't fazed so I untangled the snake from the leaves and brought it onto the grass. It was a young female Checkered Keelback, called so because of the pattern on its back. The snake bit me 4 more times before it calmed down and became completely docile. I got some photos and then showed my friend's parents how to hold the snake. I then released ot back into the same pond. I explained that snakes are aggressive for a very short period and that with gentle handling they are quick to calm down. They were keen to learn more and asked me a lot of questions, which was a pleasant surprise. Usually, people are close minded and think the worst when it comes to snakes.

Checkered Keelback Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Checkered Keelback Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Checkered Keelback Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Checkered Keelback Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

That night while I was walking around around with some friends, I saw a bright yellow Asian Toad beside the road. I recognized it as a male in breeding colors, a trait that I had failed to observe in the 8 years that I had been living in Bangalore. Once a year, male Asian Toads become bright yellow to attract females. I put my hand on the toad's back and he made a high pitched chirping noise, confirming my suspicions. Only male toads can vocalize and if a male accidentally mounts another male, the one on the bottom will vocalize to let the other one know that he is not a female. My hand on the toad's back triggered the very same behavior.

Male Asian Toad in Breeding Colors: PC Yatin Kalki

Finding species that I haven't seen before is always a pleasure. Finding them so close to home is even better. Observing a new trait in a familiar species can also be just as interesting.

Herping in Sangamon County, Illinois

Graham's Crayfish Snake and Northern Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Date:
May 13th 2015

Species Found:

1. Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon)
2. Graham's Crayfish Snake (Regina grahamii)

The Trip:

Tom Anton, a herpetologist in Illinois, had told us about the paper he was working on that documented the prevalence of Graham's Crayfish Snakes in Illinois. Regina grahamii is listed as a 'Threatened' Species in Illinois but Tom believes it should be listed as 'Endangered' because numbers have really declined and now it is one of the rarest snakes in Illinois. He gave us a few locations and wanted us to check whether Regina grahamii were present there. One morning, Doug, Tristan and I headed to Sangamon County to look for Graham's Crayfish Snakes. The amount of effort spent searching for grahamii was also relevant to his paper and we had to document all other species we found as well.

Our first location was a lake shore right next to a boat dock. We concentrated on the rocks around the edges and soon Doug found a hatchling Northern Water Snake that was only about 6 inches long and pretty skinny looking. We thought that was interesting until Tristan walked up on a big mating ball of Northern Water Snakes that had at least 6 individuals. They started to disperse as soon as they saw us but we caught one to photograph for the record. Tristan found another one tangled in an old fishing net and he cut it free with some scissors a local fisherman had. I was walking the bank and saw a large, fat female Northern Water Snake. The snakes were now alerted to our presence so she took off deep into the water as soon as she saw me. I walked a little longer, seeing the occasional Northern Water Snake jump into the water, and then turned around to walk back. To my surprise, there were 3 male Northern Water Snakes crawling up onto the exact same rock the large female had jumped off of. I concluded that they had picked up the scent of the female and were hoping to mate with her, too bad they had just missed her. We didn't see any grahamii at this spot so we decided to move on. We tallied up a total of 12 distinct individual Northern Water Snakes seen here.

Northern Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

The next spot was also a rocky shoreline, and it had a few more fishermen than the last. We saw a few more Northern Water Snakes on the rocks and in the water and we photographed one for the record. A curious fisherman asked why we were catching snakes. Doug explained that we were looking for Graham's Crayfish Snakes and described what they looked like. "Oh, somebody caught a snake that looked just like that last week at The Place [name changed]. The Place has got all kinds of snakes." said the fisherman. This sounded like a pretty good lead, but you always have to be skeptical when dealing with locals, as there is a fair amount of ignorance in the world when it comes to snakes. Further down the bank, we spotted a bunch of water snakes basking on the rocks. Our strategy of walking along the shoreline and catching snakes wasn't proving very successful. We only caught 1 in 10 snakes and the snakes that we did manage to catch were either injured or stupidly slow. We decided to change our technique, and walk perpendicular to the shoreline and sneak up on the snakes from behind. This proved to work a little better. First, Tristan jumped on a large female Northern Water Snake and carried the angry, snapping snake further inland to photograph. I tried my luck and jumped on 3 males. Limited by my 2 hands, I grabbed the tails of 2 of them while the third one got away. Both the snakes that I had put their heads into crevices between the rocks and started pushing deeper. I called for Tristan to help me pull these snakes out but he was still busy with his large female. We waited for Doug to show up so that he could take Tristan's snake and Tristan could help me with my 2. While I was waiting with the tails in my hands, I spotted another large female coiled up under a rock close to my feet. Once Doug showed up, I got Tristan to grab the large female, which was about the same size as the first one he had caught. After he had delivered the snake to Doug, he tried to help me move the rocks around the snakes that had dug into the crevices. The males were just too deep in there so we decided to let them go rather than risk hurting them. Still, we had caught 2 out of 5 snakes which was better than our previous capture rate. We went back inland to photograph our large female Northern Water Snakes.

Northern Water Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Northern Water Snakes: PC Yatin Kalki

While we were busy photographing the Water Snakes, Doug called us over because he saw a snake that wasn't a Northern Water Snake. He had already got a few photos of it from far away but he didn't want to attempt to capture it, in case it escaped. Tristan saw it and immediately jumped to try and grab it but it went underwater and we lost it. We tried moving all the rocks around where it went down and we found a heavy plastic bag. To everyone's surprise, there was another large female Northern Water Snake inside, about the same size as the 2 we had. We took it inland to photograph. When Tristan inspected Doug's photo, he exclaimed "That was a grahamii!" None of us had ever seen a Graham's Crayfish Snake before today, mostly because it is one of the rarest snakes in Illinois, so we were pretty disappointed that it had escaped.

We moved to the next spot, a nature park where someone had seen Graham's Crayfish Snakes basking on the low branches of trees. We spent about an hour walking through there but all we found was a Water Snake basking on the branch over the water. We decided that it was time to check out that lead that the fisherman had given us so we drove to The Place and started looking around. Tristan and I walked out of the car and in less than a minute we walked up on a snake hiding under a rock. A single coil was sticking out from under the rock and it didn't have the characteristic pattern of a Northern Water Snake. We had high hopes. To make sure this snake didn't get away, we decided that Tristan would grab the coil and I would flip the rock and secure the snake. We did just that and we both screamed "grahamii!" as soon as the snake was visible. Doug was still in the car getting ready to come out and look with us. He was ecstatic when he saw the snake in our hands. It had been a long-time goal of Tristan's to get good photos of a Graham's Crayfish Snake so he started setting up his flashes and camera. Meanwhile, I took a photo of the snake and sent it to Chris Phillips, the herpetologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey. I then bagged the snake and decided to look for more. Tristan was now on the phone with Tom Anton, who I guessed would have been the most excited of all about our find, considering he had been looking for this species for a good chunk of his life.

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Yatin Kalki

Doug called me and I went over. 2 meters in front of him, he had another grahamii sitting on a rock near the water, this time a juvenile. He told me to be there for backup, he wanted to attempt to catch this snake. I went around the side, ready to jump on the snake in case it decided to make a run for it while Doug calculated the best way to approach the snake without it seeing him. He sneaked up on it from behind a larger rock and put his hand on top of it. He had caught his first grahamii. Doug sat down to get his own photos while I moved on, looking for more snakes.While I walked along the bank, the following things happened. A large Northern Water Snake slid into the water right in front of me, a medium sized male grahamii was periscoping from under a rock but it too went underwater as soon as it saw me, and a large female grahamii jumped into the water from under a rock before I could even get a good look at it. While photographing the first grahamii, Tristan heard the sound of scales on rocks and pulled another grahamii out from under a rock. This place was crawling with grahamii! Good thing we listened to that fisherman.

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Graham's Crayfish Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

We got a good amount of photos and started to tally up the total number of snakes seen. We counted 6 Graham's Crayfish Snakes and 37 Northern Water Snakes. Now, we have good evidence that this place is prime habitat for Regina grahamii. It can be protected as a safe haven for this Threatened Species.